


Weight of the World

by SophiaCatherine



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, First Kiss, Fluffy Ending, Getting Together, Hopeful Ending, Lewis Snart’s A+ parenting, Light Angst, Sort Of, light emotional hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21925111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaCatherine/pseuds/SophiaCatherine
Summary: They met in English 102, chatting during a break between classes. Len had leaned into the empty seat between them, his arm draped across the back of it, as if tempted to get closer but not letting himself. She had the full attention of those intense, river-blue eyes. He was into her. The idea was so startling, she almost laughed. She wasn’t tragic Sara, oh-god-that-Sara to him - she was a goddamn crush. With the weight of expectations falling off her shoulders, she felt herself relax for the first time in months.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Leonard Snart
Comments: 10
Kudos: 46





	Weight of the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [capnwho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/capnwho/gifts).



> For the Captain Canary Secret Santa 2019. Hope you enjoy it, giftee!

“I have… a situation,” Len’s voice says down the phone line. “Can I ruin your day off?”

“Mmm?” 

Sara has the phone tucked between her head and shoulder as she does the dishes, looking out across a sea of roofs and fire escapes towards Central City Park. She tilts her head at the magpie landing on her window ledge, looking for the trail of seeds she leaves out every day. He hops fearlessly along the edge, his beak chattering sounds she can’t quite hear through the closed window. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, and she’s about to head off to do some Tai Chi in the park.

“I need help with something.”

She smiles at that smooth voice. She could handle hearing a bit more of it today. ”What can I do for you, Leonard?”

“I’ve got Lisa for the day. She’s being aggressively seven.” On cue, he calls out, “Lise, _please_ put that down,” in the tone of a big brother whose patience is straining at its limits. “I gotta get her out of the house. Help?” There’s a tiny pause before he adds, “Maybe I could come over and hang out after.”

Sara’s got to know Leonard pretty well, working nights together at the ShopRite downtown. The night shift means better pay and more daytime hours free for classes at Central City Community College, for both of them. That’s where they met, in English 102, chatting during a break between classes. Len had leaned into the empty seat between them, his arm draped across the back of it, as if tempted to get closer but not letting himself. She had the full attention of those intense, river-blue eyes. He was into her. The idea was so startling, she almost laughed. She wasn’t tragic Sara, oh-god- _that_ -Sara to him - she was a goddamn crush. With the weight of expectations falling off her shoulders, she felt herself relax for the first time in months. 

The following week, when he mentioned the vacancy where he worked, she sent her resume back with him. “Not the greatest job in the world,” he’d warned, “but the hours are pretty flexible.” But Sara didn’t want a great job. After everything that had happened, she wanted something where no one knew her, and where she didn’t have to think too much. Something safe. 

It only took her a few weeks working with Len to figure out she wasn’t the only one who needed that. They started talking, a little more each shift. She didn’t know what it was about that empty supermarket that liberated something that had been locked inside her, but it seemed to do much the same for Leonard, his stories trickling out between dammed-up silences. Maybe it was just that they didn’t have to look each other in the eye, stacking shelves at 4 AM, that hazy hour when secrets surface. 

They’ve been out for coffee since then, a few times. Sara would go as far as to call them friends. She’s been wondering if Len’s going to make a move towards something else, but he hasn’t. He’s never been over to her place. He’s never introduced her to the most important person in his life. 

She tries to sound casual over the thumping of her heart. “Sure, I can help. Were you thinking of taking her somewhere?”

The magpie hops to the corner of the ledge and takes off.

* * *

The dino park was a _terrible_ idea.

Plastic statues based on dubious science stand far apart in the concrete, like lonely relics of a fictional past. Other than the occasional tree, there’s not much else here that qualifies this as a park. 

Fortunately, Lisa thinks it’s all hilarious.

“Lenny! Have you seen this one?” Cackling, she takes off in the direction of something that might be a stegosaurus.

“Professor Harris would lose his shit over this,” Sara comments. Leonard agrees with a low laugh. She looks left and right as they amble through the empty park. “You know we’re the only ones here, right?”

He glances around - apparently he didn’t notice. He’s been comfortably lost in his own world for most of the day. She hopes it’s because he’s enjoying the company, but maybe that’s more about Lisa than Sara. He shakes his head. “Saw a kid with an old lady up ahead.”

“I think they took one look at the dinosaurs and ran away.”

His lips twitch. “Wise people…”

She begins to laugh, then stops up short. There’s a squirrel at the foot of one of the plastic atrocities. Sara takes a moment to admire it, all grey-brown tail and bright eyes, as it scampers to the top.

Leonard is watching, head tilted with a little smile. He takes his cue from her, still and quiet until the squirrel darts away. “You like nature,” he says.

She shrugs. “It’s a crappy park, but it’s still outside.” 

He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t ask her to explain.

They stroll along, catching up with Lisa. When Len looks at his sister, his face takes on this soft quality that Sara’s never seen there before, not even when he’s talking about her at work, doing his cute rambling thing. _You’ll never believe what she said on Saturday. I died._

He’s happy. The realisation lights a spark in her chest. On impulse, she reaches out and grabs his hand.

He smiles, swinging their arms back and forth as if they’re the seven-year-olds. Sara doesn’t resist, letting a childish sense of freedom take hold, swinging harder and harder until they’re both laughing.

“Hey!” Lisa calls out, turning and running back. “No fair - I wanna swing.”

Her brother rolls his eyes. “You’re too old!”

She arrives in front of them, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Try anyway!”

They make a decent attempt at swinging her between them, even if Len nearly wrenches his shoulder out of the socket in the process.

* * *

Sara watches as Leonard strains around to look at his sister in the back seat. “Got everything?” 

Lisa dutifully holds up her sparkly gold backpack. “I only brought one thing.”

“Okay, but do you have the little dinosaur?”

She reaches into the bag and peeks the fluffy dino’s face out, wiggling him impishly at Len. “Stop worrying, you booger.” Despite the words, her tone is serious, and too old for her seven years. She extends her pinky to her brother. “Everything’s good, Lenny.”

They’re not talking about backpacks or dinosaurs. 

She knows how to take care of her brother, just like he takes care of her. The thought makes Sara acutely sad. Then a little guilty - for witnessing this private moment, and because she’s not sure all of this sadness is for them.

He reaches back, gripping Lisa’s pinky with her own, and his face relaxes into a smile. “You know where I am if you need me,” he says, a little too casually.

Leonard is quiet as they watch Lisa skipping away towards their father’s house. His hands are white against the steering wheel. His face is hard like ice.

“If you wanna go back and get her—” Sara starts.

He interrupts. “No.” He starts the car up, an angry roar exploding under his hands. “No,” he says again, a whisper she barely hears over the noise of the engine, and drives away. 

He doesn’t say a word for the ten minute drive back to Sara’s apartment, but at last the engine dies down into silence.

“Do you wanna come in?” she tries, expecting another ‘no.’

But he shifts in his seat, catches her eye - and smiles. It changes his face, like he’s losing the weight of years. “Sure,” he murmurs. 

Opening the car door, she looks up. There’s the first flicker of stars overhead, lights blinking one by one into an indigo sky. And she just stops thinking. She wants one nice moment, for them both, in this crappy existence that neither of them deserves. So she takes his hand, and leads him up to her fire escape.

“Huh,” he says, when they’re gazing out over the rooftops. A huge full moon is hanging low over the cityscape.

She grins, sliding down the wall and following his line of sight. “I know. This is the closest I can get to nature, some days.”

He’s leaning against the fire escape railings, glancing back at her with a smile. “You’re a bit of an outdoor girl, huh?” She smiles, feeling something in her melt a little under piercing blue eyes.

But he turns back to the view a moment later, the tension returning to his shoulders. “She’s gonna be okay, you know,” Sara says. 

His gaze is drifting over rooftops, towards the city skyline and the shadow of STAR Labs. “You have no way of knowing that.” 

But he doesn’t sound angry, so she risks pushing a bit more. “You’ve done everything you can, short of kidnapping her. And, Len - this might sound cruel, but you’re not her parent.” He glances back at her, raises an eyebrow, but she’s on a roll now. She pulls herself up and comes to join him, leaning back against the railings while he leans forward, not quite looking him in the eye. “I know it’s not my place to say this. I’m no one to you.” He stiffens a bit. “But from what you’ve told me, you do a hell of a lot of work to keep her safe. It must be the worst thing, to have to choose between your safety and hers. But it’s also not…”

She trails off, unsure how to phrase this. Not his responsibility? No, he’d take that the wrong way. She doesn’t mean he should stop caring about Lisa, or stop all the hard work he’s been doing towards getting custody. But he can’t keep killing himself with worry like this.

“The weight of the whole world doesn’t have to be on your shoulders,” she tries. “You know that, right?” 

She reaches out and takes his hand. He doesn’t pull away. Their shoulders are brushing together, and it all feels so comfortable and right _._ That thought brings another ache of guilt, given the somber topic of conversation.

“You’re _not_ no one,” he says, quietly, to the sky. His hand tightens in hers. A moment later he adds, “How d’you get so wise?” He’s fighting a little smile.

“I think a lot,” she jokes back. She lets her head fall against his shoulder.

“You’ve had a lot of thinking time.”

The little gasp of breath escapes her before she can stop it. His head jerks around in her direction, before his wide eyes drop to the black metal lines of the fire escape beneath their feet. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he scrambles to say. “I was talking about the job at the store, not— oh, hell.”

She nearly sighs out loud. She’s just so bored of this - of being the open secret in this town. Sara Lance, who was kidnapped on a family boating holiday by people with mob ties and a grudge against her police captain father, and wasn’t found for months. It’s still all anyone can think of when they look at her - at home, at college, at every damn family gathering where everyone from Laurel to great-aunt fucking Eleanor still talks to her like she’s _broken,_ a year after she was found.

Sara took the supermarket job because she needed a bit of normalcy. (She used to think normal was overrated. Not anymore.) She should have known the rumours would follow her there.

She and Leonard have danced around this subject for months. He’s not exactly a blabbermouth, but she’s coaxed far more out of him about his life than he’s managed to learn about hers. About his piss-poor excuse for a father, and how responsible he feels for his sister, and all the ways he’s struggling to fix his mess of a life so he can work towards getting custody. In turn, she’s told him fragments of stories - as much as she can handle saying out loud. Which isn’t much, even a year later.

Len looks devastated. He looks like he’s about to flee, and she can’t ignore this anymore. “You didn’t mean it,” she echoes back, a hand on his arm. “I’m not gonna break if you say something that comes out wrong, Len.” 

He’s still not looking at her. She sighs. “Come on.” She coaxes him down. They sit against the railings, and somehow he ends up wrapped around her. 

Gray clouds are hiding the moon now, but the view’s still beautiful. 

“You asked me if I’m an outdoor girl,” she says, and he nods against her. “I never was before.” She’s really glad he can’t see her face right now.

“Before the kidnapping?” he asks, his voice gruff.

Sara shrugs. His jacket rustles against her as she moves. “Yeah.” 

Below them, the sounds of the city at night are as musical as any birdsong - cars and buses and, _god,_ even a police siren. Heroes rushing to people who need them.

“They kept me in a basement for two months,” she says at last, trying not to tense when his arms tighten around her. She’s not ready to talk about all of it, but she can hit the headlines. For him. “Most of the time I was alone. I thought I was never getting out alive. And once I got past the fear, I just missed everything, so much.” She smiles in spite of the deep ache of memory. “Like how my mom and I used to take long walks in the forest and talk about all kinds of things. And my morning runs, even though I hated them half the time.” She snorts. “Even Laurel’s damn garden. She’s obsessed with those shrubs.” She turns her head to catch his eye. He’s watching her with a thoughtful look. “I promised myself that if I got out, I’d find a way to see nature every day. So, after everything, I moved out of my basement apartment—” she ignores his slight shudder at that— “and into this place. It was all I could afford, but I can see sunlight and birds and…” She gestures at the half-hidden moon and takes a long, slightly shaky breath. “And then there was college, and the job, and— and you. It all helps. But _this,_ being able to sit outside and see the stars, even on a crappy fire escape... I’m never taking that for granted again.”

It’s almost more than she’s ever said about her experience, to anyone. Even counting that disaster of an attempt at therapy her parents made her get, the first couple of months after she got home. She thought talking about it would hurt more. Instead, it feels like something in her has shifted, just a little. Like something’s been set free.

Len wriggles around so he can look at her properly, but he doesn’t let go of her hand. “Me, huh?” he murmurs. 

Oh, so he noticed that. She hits him very lightly on the arm. “Yeah, asshole. You made the list.”

He’s holding her gaze with those brilliant blue eyes. She thinks she knows him pretty well by now, and she knows Leonard Snart doesn’t do anything without a plan. This is probably the height of spontaneity for him. But then his face cracks with a wry little smile, and he leans in to kiss her.

It’s not a passionate kiss. It’s a soft press of lips, a careful exploration of tongues. It’s trust, between two people who don’t do a lot of that.

When they’re back in position, wrapped around each other, with Sara behind Leonard this time, he asks, “How do you do it? How do you let go of the weight of the world?”

She runs her hand up and down his arm, just feeling the shape of firm muscles beneath his jacket, listening to his breathing. She smiles, even though he can’t see it, and leans her head against him. “You let the light in,” she says. “One bit at a time.”

“Huh,” he muses, like she’s said something terribly wise. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “You want pizza?” he asks, his voice a little distracted. “If we’re staying here all night and watching the sunrise, we’re gonna need food.”

She snorts into his jacket. “You know that’s, like, eight hours from now?”

Len turns his head to smirk at her. “Not up to the challenge, Lance?”

That time, Sara laughs aloud, suddenly feeling so light that she has to try not to shake with it. She doesn’t know how he does this to her. How he’s getting her to trust him, so slowly and gently that she’s hardly noticed. How he eases her heavy heart, just a little. But she’s not ready to let any of it go. “Sure,” she says. “Pizza sounds good.”

By the end of the night, they’ve kissed a few more times, and they know a whole lot more about each other.

“Good morning, Mr Magpie,” Sara whispers to the bird hopping onto her fire escape in the gray dawn light. She grins down at the man dozing in her arms. “Sorry about the stranger, but I think you might be getting to know him a bit better soon.”

The bird cocks its head at her.

“Oh, crap - I forgot your morning seed,” she hisses.

Len stirs against her. “Hmm?”

She props him up against the railings. “Go back to sleep. I gotta feed a bird.” 

As she’s climbing in through the window, she hears a murmured, “You’re really weird, Lance, you know that?”

She pauses on the other side of the window, looking out. He’s coaxing the magpie towards him, his hand easy and light on the railing. She smiles out for a minute, and then goes rummaging through kitchen cabinets for the bird seed.

“Shit!” is the next thing she hears, followed by a very glum, “I scared it away.”

When she’s finally stopped laughing, she climbs back out, reassures him the magpie’s not gone for good, and shows him where she leaves the food. 

Then, hand in hand, they sit and watch the sunrise.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, I’d love a comment. I always reply. <3
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](https://sophiainspace.tumblr.com/), [dreamwidth](https://sophia-catherine.dreamwidth.org/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/sophiacatherin5).


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